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It’s painfully obvious that when Ozzy Osbourne lost relevance (~ 1994) he should have stopped torturing the world with “his” music because now it’s just kinda sad… and terrible.

It had been a while since I last saw Matt Pond PA in concert. In fact it has been about three albums released by him (or I guess the band) since I saw them in a shitty Scottsdale bar. Back then the band included a cellist and the music was a little softer. That’s the Matt Pond PA that I still like most – softer and with a cello. The last couple, dare I say “rocking,” albums don’t quite do it for me like the first several albums.

The Matt Pond PA that I saw at the Sail Inn didn’t have a cellist and the band played mostly songs from the last three albums. For the tour Matt Pond has with him two other guitarists, a bass player and a drummer – a pretty standard rock ‘n roll setup. I was concerned about one of the guitarists though. Leslie Sisson, who provided the female backing vocals, was off on the far stage left, all by herself without any interaction with the rest of the band. It’s almost as if she had been banished by the rest of the band. But really… that’s just something I noticed and had no real impact on my enjoyment of the show.

That the band stuck with the more recent songs instead of going deep into the back catalog is my only complaint about the entire show. Thankfully, the band did play my all-time favorite Matt Pond PA song, “New Hampshire,” and it was awesome. The band had a lot of energy and rocked the songs that needed rocking and chilled the songs that needed the energy to be brought back down. Even when playing the slower songs, Matt Pond PA never lost the audience. We were all right there with the band from the first song until the last.

Oh, I do have one more complaint but it may not necessarily lie on the shoulders of the band – there was no encore! But that may be because the Sail Inn is tucked away right next to a couple apartment complexes.

The Sail Inn is a cool joint. In fact, it may be one of the cooler venues in Tempe. It’s pretty small venue, hosting maybe only a couple hundred at the very most but does have both an indoor and outdoor stage. One of the nice little added attractions to the outdoor stage is the fact that planes are coming in for a landing directly overhead the entire show. For a show like this, a mellow small (ish) crowd, the venue couldn’t have been more perfect.

Hawthorne Heights have perfected the “emo/pop/punk” thing and while this album is not nearly as bad as you think it’s gonna be, it’s not nearly good enough to recommend.

Compared to his work with Sigur Rós and Jonsi & Alex, this new album by Jónsi Birgisson is downright poppy. In fact, if Jonsi’s label was willing to pay for it, I could easily see several of these songs appearing on Top 40 radio. Well… actually, maybe not. There is still the inability of most listeners to sing along. But those of us that have come to appreciate Jonsi have long since given up trying to decipher what he’s singing even when he is signing in English.

If it wasn’t for Jonsi’s voice soaring over these tracks I’m not sure I would ever guess that he’s the man behind this collection of songs. All the songs are a nice departure for the indie-symphonic sounds of Sigur Rós and the ambient Jonsi & Alex. Josni’s voice is an unmistakable falsetto and on this album it is used the same as all the other instruments on this album – looped, tweeked, and full of power.

And contrary to his previous stuff (and my preference) there’s really only one ballad on Go and it’s the last track on the album, “Hengilás.” There are a couple that start off with a quiet piano loop but those soon build into stomping anthems. These are the songs that I like the best. “Tornado,” “Grow Till Tall” and “Kolniður” all are mellow starters and powerhouse enders.

There isn’t a single song on here that I don’t enjoy… even though I can’t sing along.

“My Shadow” is good but the rest of the album is just… eh.